articleNature ImmunologyJan 16, 2026HYBRID OA

Fine-tuning BACH2 dosage balances stemness and effector function to enhance antitumor T cell therapy

University of Cambridge · Cambridge School · +8 more institutions

PubMed
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Abstract

Adoptive T cell therapies are limited by poor persistence of transferred cells. Attempts to enhance persistence have focused on genetic induction of constitutively hyperactivated but potentially oncogenic T cell states. Physiological T cell responses are maintained by quiescent stem-like/memory cells dependent upon the transcription factor BACH2. Here we show that quantitative control of BACH2 dosage regulates differentiation along the continuum of stem and effector CD8⁺ T cell states, enabling engineering of synthetic states with persistent antitumor activity. While conventional high-level overexpression of BACH2 enforces quiescence and hinders tumor control, low-dose BACH2 expression promotes persistence…

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